Kombucha Tea - To Drink or Not to Drink

Date: November 15, 2019
Type: AFA Article


MEC Employee Assistance/Professional Standards

Commercial Kombucha Tea is typically sold and labeled as “non-alcoholic”. However, this does not mean that it doesn’t contain alcohol.  It means that it contains less than 0.5% alcohol to be sold as a non-alcoholic beverage.  Home brewed Kombucha teas can have up to as much as 3% alcohol content. For comparison, a regular beer, on average, is 5% alcohol. Left unrefrigerated for an extended period of time, the alcohol content of some Kombucha teas can increase. 

If you want to steer completely clear of a DOT violation or a zero-tolerance violation of many European countries, treat Kombucha Tea as an alcoholic beverage. If you have a medical or religious reason to abstain from all sources of alcohol, you would also want to avoid Kombucha Tea.

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